


Paying a Fee

by terunakamura



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Anxiety, First Dates, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-27 16:28:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8408686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/terunakamura/pseuds/terunakamura
Summary: Yuuri's worried about the fact that he hasn't been paying Victor any coaching fees so far. How does Victor want Yuuri to pay him back?
Or, Yuuri's anxiety doesn't let him realize he's on a date.
Takes place post-Episode 3





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on an idea I've seen floating about Tumblr where Yuuri pays Victor back with a date. This is un-beta'd, so if there's any mistakes, please point them out so I can correct them!

“Victor…” Yuuri started to say as he stepped off of the ice at the end of their practice for the day.

“Yes, Yuuri?” Victor’s response was of course accompanied by that trademark goofy smile. A smile that always made Yuuri’s heart do little flips.

“Y-you know, ever since you came here we never really discussed a coaching fee.” Yuuri felt awkward bringing it up; it wasn’t like he’d earned much money to be able to afford any fee after his previous lackluster season. But this was Victor, his lifelong idol, and he couldn’t possibly forgive himself for not giving Victor what he was owed.

Victor waved his hand dismissively. “There’s no need! I’m getting enough payment from seeing you improve!”

“That isn’t fair to you,” Yuuri argued, “I mean you had to fly to Japan from Russia, that alone is probably expensive. Then you let Yuri and I borrow your costumes for our performances, and those are probably expensive as well-”

“Yuuri.” Victor’s finger pressed against Yuuri’s lips, both ensuring Yuuri’s silence and also making a light blush spread across his features. Victor leaned in close. “If you’re really set on paying me, how about you meet me at the restaurant down the street from the onsen in…” Victor checked the time on his phone, “…forty-five minutes? Do you think you can do that?”

Yuuri in a state of mixed embarrassment and confusion simply nodded his head, unable to vocally state his agreement with Victor’s finger pressed firmly against his lips. Victor’s smile came back brighter than ever.

“Wonderful!” Finally stepping back from Yuuri, Victor immediately headed towards the exit of the ice rink. He stopped for a moment to call back over his shoulder. “Wear something nice, okay?” With one last wink, Victor was through the exit.

It seemed like a few minutes had passed with Yuuri frozen in his spot. Suddenly though, the realization hit Yuuri and he scrambled to take his skates off and ran to the changing room.

~~~

Yuuri arrived at the restaurant with barely a minute to spare. He had rushed home to try to dig out anything that Victor may deem ‘nice’ enough for the occasion.

…Whatever that occasion may be.

Yuuri felt rather disappointed that he was about to be treating Victor to a fancy meal when he was stuck adhering to a strict diet. Regardless, if good food was the way Victor wanted to be repaid for his work then Yuuri was going to suck it up and suffer.

As he entered the restaurant Yuuri was struck by how fancy it seemed and started to wonder if he could even afford to buy a meal for just Victor, let alone the pair of them together. With that thought hanging over his mind Yuuri started to tug at his hair, realizing at the last minute that his hair was probably still terribly messy after skating for hours. It was a lost cause.

“Yuuri!” He heard the cheerful call from across the dining area and spotted Victor waving at him from a small table near the back. When Yuuri arrived and finally sat down, Victor seemed to be filled with energy. “Ah, isn’t this such a nice place? I’ve been wanting to come here since I first arrived! Have you come here before?”

“No… my family really never comes to places like this,” Yuuri admitted sheepishly. This restaurant was much too expensive for his family to afford, most of the spare money his parents earned had gone to Yuuri’s skating expenses, whether it was lessons when he was younger or traveling to competitions. He felt guilty at what little return his parents were getting on that investment after his lackluster previous season.

A waiter arrived with menus and Yuuri tried to take his mind off his previous thoughts by checking out the selection. However, it only ended up making things worse when he caught sight of the prices. ‘ _There can’t really be that many zeroes in that price, right? Is this menu really in yen?_ ’

He was so distraught over how his checking account might appear after this meal was over that he didn’t even realize that Victor had been speaking to him.

“…-ri? Yuuri!”

“E-eh?!” Yuuri was startled out his panic by Victor flicking his forehead.

“I asked what you wanted to pick for dinner,” Victor said, offering a patient smile.

“Ah, I-… I’m actually not really hungry!” Yuuri laughed awkwardly, trying to return Victor’s smile but failing miserably. Victor’s smile dropped to a frown.

“Are you not feeling well?” he asked with a hint of worry lingering in his words. Yuuri shook his head quickly.

“No, no! I just think it would be a waste to buy something if I won’t finish it, right?”

Victor shrugged. “You could always bring home leftovers?”

“It’s okay, really.”

“What’s wrong, Yuuri?” The serious tone in Victor’s voice made Yuuri pause. He supposed he couldn’t really hide it with Victor being so persistent. His face turned a shade of red in embarrassment at his predicament.

“I don’t really think I can afford anything here… except maybe a breadstick and a glass of water.”

Instead of being annoyed or disappointed as Yuuri’s brain had been screaming he would be, Victor’s happy mood came back full force and he laughed cheerfully.

“Oh, there’s no need to worry then! I’ll be paying of course.”

Yuuri’s mind surprisingly did not have a response to that one. In fact it was so busy trying to calculate how Victor’s statement made any sense in the current situation that Yuuri was left with no amount of brain power left to formulate a better response than: “I don’t understand.”

“Hm? Was my grammar wrong? My Japanese isn’t my strongest point.”

Yuuri’s mind had finally been able to come up with a proper response to Victor’s seemingly oxymoronic statement but he was unable to speak before the waiter returned to take their orders. Victor of course had no issue stating his order, but Yuuri had spent the last few minutes so convinced he wouldn’t be able to eat that he hadn’t even checked if anything he liked was on the menu. Yuuri cursed himself internally and started to skim the menu quickly for anything that might actually fit into his diet.

Victor had seemingly caught onto his dilemma. “Pick anything you’d like today, Yuuri. Just this once though!” Victor’s expression was calm and encouraging, and it helped soothe Yuuri’s nerves. He picked something on the cheapest portion of the menu, and Victor didn’t chide him for it.

They waited for their meals in a fairly comfortable silence, and ate rather quietly as well. Yuuri’s dish of chicken piccata was even more delicious than he had thought, and the tasty meal put him at ease. He glanced at Victor’s plate.

“What did you order?” he asked in a moment between bites.

“Poached lobster.” Yuuri put the thought of how expensive that must be out of his head, trying to stop himself from getting a headache. “Want to try some?” Victor held out a piece on his fork, placing it just outside Yuuri’s lips.

It seemed that if Yuuri didn’t give himself a headache then Victor would do it for him.

Yuuri glanced around at the tables near them; most of the people were couples that were too preoccupied in each other to look at the potential scandal going on at their table near the back. He decided he was going to just accept Victor’s behavior as nothing out of the ordinary and take the bite. It was incredibly delicious and made it almost worth the nerve-wracking worry of whether anyone nearby had noticed.

‘ _That woman at the next table must have noticed. She’s looking the other way right now, but she must have seen._ ’ Yuuri shrunk down in his seat.

Wasn’t he supposed to be repaying Victor for coaching him? Probably, but instead he was embarrassing himself in front of about sixty other diners and letting Victor pay for his meal. How disappointing a reward is this?

‘ _I’m a Class A disappointment aren’t I? On the ice and off of it…_ ’ He felt miserable.

They finished their meals and, true to his word, Victor pulled out a credit card to cover their meals. Yuuri stood slightly behind Victor as they left, hoping Victor wouldn’t be able to see the dismayed look on his face.

“That was a nice meal, hm?” Victor asked, still fairly cheerful in demeanor.

“Y-yes, it was.” He bowed his head in gratitude. “Thank you very much.”

“Why so formal?” Victor laughed. They walked down the street and as they reached the onsen Yuuri made to turn into the entrance. Victor grabbed his arm.

“Where are you going? We’re not done yet.” Once again there was a wink flashing in Yuuri’s direction.

“Eh?”

Victor hauled him down the street, then on a few different turns before they arrived at their next destination. The movie theater. Maybe this is what Victor wanted him to pay him back with?

As they approached the ticket counter, Yuuri dug in his pockets for money but was once again beaten to the punch by Victor. Yuuri’s confusion skyrocketed, mind racing to find an explanation for Victor’s behavior even while the other man paid for him once more at the snack counter. He finally brought up enough courage and stopped Victor as they were walking down the hall to their specific theater.

“Victor, I really don’t understand!” Yuuri said exhaustedly. The mental workout Victor was giving him was almost bigger than the exhaustion he had from skating earlier.

“What do you mean?” Victor looked genuinely confused, even with a big grin still on his face.

“I mean, I’m supposed to be paying you back for your work but I haven’t paid for a single thing so far,” Yuuri stated plainly, “Isn’t this, I don’t know, the exact opposite of repayment?”

Victor was silent before placing a hand on Yuuri’s shoulder, expression going oddly serious. “Yuuri. The money isn’t my repayment. _This_ is.” Victor gestured between the pair of them. “It isn’t often I get to go on a date with such a talented man as you after all.”

“…date?” Yuuri ran over the word in his head several times. ‘ _Date? Date. …DATE?!_ ’ “EH?!”

Victor let out a single laugh and then ruffled Yuuri’s hair. “Come on, we don’t want to miss our movie.” In his state of shock Yuuri allowed himself to be dragged into the theater.

The movie was probably about a couple that adopted a dog (that looked surprisingly similar to Makkachin) and then went on a bunch of adventures with said dog… but Yuuri was unable to take in a single thing that happened on the screen because all he could process was the feeling of Victor’s arm wrapped around his shoulders and the way Victor pulled him over until Yuuri was settled comfortably into Victor’s side. The movie could have been four hours long but Yuuri still would have been disappointed when the credits finally started and Victor pulled away.

“Did you enjoy yourself, Yuuri?” Victor asked affectionately, leading the still stunned man out of the theater. Yuuri could do nothing but nod.

Victor held his hand the whole route back to the onsen without a care in the world for who saw them. Yuuri was too lost in emotion to even notice. But he finally came to his senses when they were just outside their rooms back home.

“…This was really a date?” Yuuri asked sheepishly.

Victor nodded enthusiastically. “It was!”

“You wanted a date with _me_?” He still couldn’t process that part. His brain seemed to have short-circuited before it could over analyze that too.

“Who wouldn’t, Yuuri?” Victor sensed that he was about to bring up another argument and cut him off with a gentle kiss.

Yuuri felt like he was floating. All the tension in him was gone for the first time in who knows long.

“So can I sleep together with you _now_?” Victor asked. Yuuri was brought back to earth immediately and let out a screech before retreating back to his own room and slamming the door shut, leaving a laughing Victor in the hall.

**Author's Note:**

> It was surprisingly not hard for me to write out how Yuuri's anxiety affects him without actually saying the word 'anxiety'. All I had to do was go 'well how does my mind usually handle situations' and go from there.
> 
> I hope other people will enjoy this like I enjoyed writing it! It's the first bit of fanfic I've actually managed to finish in over a year lol
> 
> EDIT: I fixed some grammar and spelling mistakes I noticed after another read through! Hopefully the fic reads a bit smoother now.


End file.
